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Glite Dictionary
thanks to

thanks to

534 1.0
Because a person or thing helps, something happens
  • idiom
translation icon : gracias a
  • Thanks to her dedication, the charity event raised more money than we expected.
  • survive thanks to
  • thanks to advances
  • Today thanks to

The soccer player breaks his ankle thanks to the game he loves.

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Examples

  • So thanks to you for being here and thanks to everyone for tuning in.

  • "The partnership is still growing, thanks to Jackie Hill and Jackson County Industrial Development Corp."

    Academic text (2008)

  • Put there in large part thanks to my next guest.

    Megyn Kelly

  • So I am now a huge fan of this book thanks to people leaving comments.

  • But now it's all over, thanks to you.

    The Month of August (2002)

  • And thanks to my hard work, they got it.

    Thunderbolts* (2025)

  • Now, finally, to the coast, all thanks to our tour guide, Johnny.

  • Well, Brothers, thanks to your willing hands and hearts... this church will very soon be complete.

    Francis of Assisi (1961)

  • The students had access to a currently available device, thanks to Vanderbilt's medical program.

    Academic text (2008)

  • We would like to take this opportunity to offer heartfelt thanks to all our many donors and friends.

    Academic text (1990)

Synonyms

due
vsthanks to
∞ 3.1

Happening because of something or someone

highlights a helpful person or presence as reason for the result

Surface Forms

thanks to main

Morphology

thanks + to

The causal meaning 'because of' is partly derivable from 'thanks' (gratitude/acknowledgement) plus the prepositional link 'to', and many learners can infer a benefactive/cause relation from the constituents. However, the usage is somewhat conventionalized (it can be neutral or even negative in context) and not fully predictable from the parts alone, so prior exposure or cross-linguistic parallels (e.g. Spanish 'gracias a', French 'grâce à') often helps.

Etymology

Thanks to comes from the simple act of saying thanks to someone who helped make something happen: you point to the helper and link the good result to them. So, we use thanks to today to mean 'because of' or 'as a result of' someone or something.